Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s sitting secretary of state, and the Democrat’s nominee for governor defended her refusal to debate GOP nominee Kari Lake while on MSNBC Wednesday and announced that PBS had given in to her demand to host two separate events instead of a debate.
The Lake campaign released a statement denouncing the decision by PBS’s local affiliate as a “betrayal.”
“We just learned hours before airtime of tonight’s Clean Elections Commission debate that PBS has unilaterally caved to Katie Hobbs’ demands and bailed her out from the consequences of her cowardly decision to avoid debating me on stage,” said the Lake campaign statement.
Hobb’s defended her refusal to debate Lake, which has become a topic in the campaign and led to concerns from Democrats over her “low-key campaign” against the hardline Trump-backed Republican.
“All three top Republicans are election deniers. How do you debate someone who refuses to accept the truth, who doesn’t live in facts, and it doesn’t do any service to the voters in terms of deciding, look at the contrast between us and how we’re going to govern. If all she’s going to do is shout, shout over me, interrupt me and spew lies,” Hobbs told Andrea Mitchell when asked about skipping the debate.
Lake has been a lightning rod of controversy as a candidate over her claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen and bombastic attacks on
“And in fact, PBS is also giving me the same format that Kari Lake has. So so she certainly will not go unanswered. We’ve looked for opportunities for formats where I can talk directly to voters. They can hear directly from me without the spectacle that Kari Lake is going to create. And we’re going to have the same opportunity here that she has as well,” Hobbs added.
Lake’s campaign blasted PBS in response and accused the network of being in cahoots with Hobbs.
“PBS, a supposedly-objective taxpayer-funded entity, is working overtime to help elect Katie Hobbs, who needs all the help she can get. PBS has now become complicit in Katie Hobbs’ attempt to destroy twenty years of gubernatorial debate tradition. We are actively working with the Clean Elections Commission and we continue to push for an opportunity for a real debate with both candidates on stage,” Lake’s campaign added in their statement.
The race between Lake and Hobbs remains within the margin of error in most polls and has led to concern among Hobbs’s supporters as she is polling below Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in his race against Trump-backed Blake Masters.
NBC’s Allan Smith and Vaughn Hillyard reported on concerns amongst Democrats Wednesday that Hobbs is polling behind Kelly. The duo quoted Donna Durand, a Democratic Party organizer as saying she is “anxious” over Hobbs’s refusal to debate Lake.
“I feel the frustrations,” she reportedly said, adding, “I’ve been contacting Hobbs’ team since June. And my clubs out here have been contacting the Hobbs team since January. And we just get the same answer — either crickets or, ‘Sorry, we can’t do this right now.’”
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.